T-Mobile's iPhone 5 is a Tweaked Model A1428 Phone with AWS Support

PBF said:

Does anyone know why Verizon's network speeds are slower than those of AT&T or T-Mobile???

I thought Verizon has always been considered the best.

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Verizon has the best coverage, ie verizon's service will work in more places than anyone elses and in places where ATT does not work at all verizon will, however on 3G ATT is faster than verizon their LTE networks are very close with ATT having the edge due to less LTE users

William7 said:

Verizon has the best coverage, ie verizon's service will work in more places than anyone elses and in places where ATT does not work at all verizon will, however on 3G ATT is faster than verizon their LTE networks are very close with ATT having the edge due to less LTE users

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I gave too many years too AT&T and their horrible speeds just to have the iPhone. I finally have incredible speeds on T-Mobile that are faster than my DSL speeds. Wish I would have switched sooner.

i had also tried Verizon for a year and had worse speeds than AT&T where I had no 3G at all and dropped calls.

The third cap is on T-Mobile using a Nexus 4. On Verizon, the higher speeds were outside and the low speeds were at my house.

I think T-MO is finally a contender. Sure Verizon hands down has the best LTE footprint, probably best 3G coverage as well... But T-MO has unlimited data!!

No mas with VZN & AT&T unless your grandfathered.

If I didn't have to pay $850 outright for my iPhone 5 (unlimited VZN) I might consider a swap to T-MO.

beeinformed said:

Wow those are great speeds! What city are you getting these LTE speeds?

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Right outside that asian McDonalds next to the Verizon Center.

Will T-Mobile limit the speeds to 3g with the prepaid plans? All the other carriers do.

dewthedru said:

Will T-Mobile limit the speeds to 3g with the prepaid plans? All the other carriers do.

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No. I've been getting 26Mbps on my Nexus 4 using the $30 100 minute prepaid plan.

Thanks! Next question...I'm in Indianapolis. If LTE isn't rolled out here, will it run in 3G?

cere said:

There were no hardware change needed. AWS is supported in the chipset for the iPhone 5 (and back to the iPhone 4 I think) but it was disabled. The "new" units will have this band enabled. The question is whether it might be possible to enable it on existing phones. Apple has said they won't be enabling it for units already in the field, but that may not preclude a third party from doing it. Depending on what and where the software/firmware needed to enable AWS is will determine whether it is possible to do existing units.

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By disabled you mean it can be enabled by a setting? I don't know by AWS was announced if it is factory disabled

Aloha-

I have a Verizon iPhone 5 (with a nano SIM) , running on ATT through Net10 (I have heard that the Verizon iPhone 5's are on both CDMA and GSM due to regulations the FCC put on Verizon so Verizon could get the LTE bandwidth/frequency from the FCC, the FCC made Verizon have GSM and CDMA unlocked on it's phones (at least that's how I understand it).

I want to switch to TMO because of the soft-cap issues with Net10 and them calling me everyday saying I am using too much bandwidth (I am not a heavy user but did use Pandora for a couple days for a total of about 5 -6 hours) and apparently Net10 gives themselves the option of completely disconnecting my service (and thus me losing my phone number!) without notice!

Looking up my specs from my phones model number (MD654LL/A) gives me the following information about my phone:

Cellular and Wireless


World phone

CDMA model A1429*: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1900, 2100 MHz); UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 3, 5, 13, 25)
802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4GHz and 5GHz)
Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology

So, it does say I have UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz) but it does NOT say I have the 1700/2100 mentioned in the article, and it does not have LTE band 4 that I think someone posted that is also needed for the best speeds on TMO.

So, if anyone out there who knows about all numbers can help me out, I would appreciate it.

Also, my serial number ends in F8H2 and in the hearing aids part of the specs it says this:

Rating for Hearing Aids
iPhone 5 (Model A1428): M3, T4

If any of that helps / makes a difference

Oh, and what's the difference between 4G and LTE?

Anyway,
Mahalo (Thanks)